Google Pixel now reported to randomly freeze for minutes

Google may have broken out the champagne a wee bit too early for its Pixel smartphones. After a brief but pleasant honeymoon, owners are slowly discovering the warts hiding under the pretty facade. The latest string of user complaints involve the Pixel smartphones randomly freezing and becoming unusable under still unreproducible circumstances. It is, however, just the latest in what looks like a growing list of complaints and issues plaguing the first “made by Google” smartphone.

The first complaints about the Google Pixel happened not too long ago, when some users found that their cameras were rendered practically unusable by a purple shade and random artifacts. Then just days before Christmas, another group of users reported severe distortions in audio when playing at max volume. That may be a simple software problem, hinted by that fact that a custom ROM seems to have a fix for it.

This latest issue, unfortunately, might be a combination of both software and hardware. Actually, its exact nature is so elusive making it near impossible to pin down on either possibility. All users now is that their Pixel phones would suddenly freeze and become unusable. Sometimes, navigation buttons would even disappear. This would last from a few seconds to a few minutes.

Some have pointed the blame at third-party apps like Life360. Others have pinned it on location services and hardware. Others, however, experience the problem even without those two factors. Both Pixel and Pixel XL smartphones are equally affected, hinting at a deeper, hardware problem.

Google is naturally intent on solving these mysteries, even if it remains ominously silent. After all, it is its premiere and maiden smartphone. But the rising number of complaints about do make one wonder if Google bit off more than it could chew and if it really has what it takes to make its own smartphones.